


In for the Long Haul

by jakecocoa



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Action, Drama, F/M, Gang Wars, Gen, Politics, Unnecessarily complicated bureaucracy, Urban AU, it's a lot less intense than it sounds don't worry, romance isn't really a main focus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-16 20:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1360255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jakecocoa/pseuds/jakecocoa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tough times bring out the best and the worst of humans.</p><p>On a cold Tuesday, Lucy Heartfilia runs away from her posh home to find herself without work or lodgings in the poorest part of town. With no other options, she joins the Fairy Tail wizard's union, which offers free room and board as long as mages fulfill their state-sanctioned work quota by the end of each month. It sounds pretty simple- until threats from rival 'unions' begin to emerge as job opportunities shrink rapidly, forcing choices to be made and bridges to be burned. (Thankfully, not literally.)</p><p>Basically: FT AU where everything is the same except they live in the slums of an urban city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wingin' it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to yaushie (.tumblr.com) for the inspiration and for letting me use her wonderful idea! *smooches* Like I said, you give me a prompt, and in return I will give you a monster. This monster, specifically.  
> Also, let me know if the formatting is odd- I've never used AO3 before and I'm not quite sure how this all works haha

Lucy Heartfilia had nowhere to go.

In hindsight, it would have been smart to plan out her sudden run from home. For instance, gloves would have been nice. Or a pair of pants. But Lucy Heartfilia had never considered herself to be a master of foresight, and tonight especially proved that. And now it was approximately 0 degrees out, she couldn’t feel her hands, and was seriously considering sleeping under a newspaper.

She was starting to get a bit desperate. Maybe she should just go back home? Or maybe take that old dude she’d run into that morning (Bora? Was that his name?) up on his offer to work as a pole dancer? It paid well, she’d heard. Plus it apparently did wonders for your core- _no! Stop that!_ Lucy clutched her head, bemoaning her predicament. _No matter how tough things get, don’t start glorifying the stripper life!_

She hefted her bag over her shoulder and imagined down comforters and hot tea, trying to ignore the vaguely sour smell drifting from the alleys. As she wandered further and further downtown the sounds of police sirens and breaking glass got louder and louder, until she began wishing for headphones as well. Lucy finally found her way to the bus stop and plunked down on the suspiciously sticky bench, clutching her coat tighter around her body. Why did she put on a skirt that morning? Breathing into her chilled palms, she read the bus schedule. The next one going uptown would come in...a half hour. Great. She burrowed into her coat and settled down for a long wait.

Hopefully unobtrusively, she checked out the person sitting on the other side of the bench. He had a white scarf pulled over his face (smart guy) and tousled pink hair poked out the top. As she watched, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it discreetly, though she couldn’t tell exactly how he did. Lucy wrinkled her nose as the smoke drifted over towards her and turned away, cupping her hand over her mouth.

Lucy leaned her head against the side of the covering on the bus stop and closed her eyes. Without really even trying, she found herself remembering what had happened that morning. Right then, sitting in the cold and dark, all alone, she was sort of wishing things had gone differently.

She’d gotten up late. Hold on- backtrack. Typically, getting up late wasn’t a big deal for her, because she didn’t go to school and didn’t have a job. She’d graduated high school last year, but because her mother had suddenly contracted cervical cancer, she’d been unable to send out her college applications. The doctors had caught it late; and though they tried radiotherapy, it metastasized too quickly and they were unable to remove it. Five months after her diagnosis, Layla Heartfilia passed away. Lucy decided not to go to university, and to instead stay home and help her father around the house, as he rarely had time to do so himself.

So Lucy woke up late on a Tuesday. It wasn’t super late, but usually her father was up around six. She got up at seven. When she rushed down to help him get ready (usually she at least made coffee for him) he scolded her for her tardiness.

Since he didn’t need to be at his workplace until eight, Lucy quickly tried to make coffee  for him, so he would have something before work. Cooking was something she usually did, though she wasn’t excellent at it. But when she’d finished,  she accidentally spilled half the pot on the papers lying on the table. Her father didn’t say anything at first, then quietly began explaining to her that the papers were for a contract with a client and now he would have to get them re-signed, which would come across as extremely unprofessional and also open up contract negotiations again, which he’d only barely managed to get through in the first place, and if it all went poorly he could lose the entire deal, costing his entire company billions of dollars- and by that point, he was shouting at her.

So Lucy said she was sorry.

And then he really got mad.

The thing is- this happened often. She’d mess up, make mistakes, and he’d get angry. And it happened so much, and Lucy was starting to feel worn out. So _this_ time, when he finally left for work, she decided to look for her mother’s keys, since she didn’t like the idea of him having them. But after hours of searching the house, she could only conclude that her father had hidden them in the safe.

Her mother had left her keys to Lucy in her will. Her father had no right to them, especially since Lucy was eighteen and fully permitted to her own inheritance. The fact that he would _steal_ them, and not even _tell_ her, then _lock them away from her_ was what caused her to run upstairs and start packing her bags.

She’d thrown in what she could immediately think of- cellphone, toothbrush, a scarf, a pair of sewing scissors (for protection? she wasn’t sure of her thinking pattern there) and her wallet. That was all. When the sun had set, Lucy’d dug out the scarf, but she had nothing else useful.

After several minutes of alternating between shivering violently and jerking awake after dozing off, two bright points of light announced the arrival of the bus. Lucy stood, shaking out her stiff legs and hopping from foot to foot, ready for the slight warmth the bus would offer. That and soft seats. Albeit crusted with mysterious fluids, but that would be a minor detail.

As she stood up, so did the guy next to her. He hung back, though, hands in his pockets. Lucy may have imagined it (she was quite tired at that point) but it looked like he’d let his cigarette burn to his lips before swallowing the small flame. But that...obviously an optical illusion. He’d pulled the scarf over his chin again, and glanced over at her when he noticed her eyes on him. He gave her a cheeky wave. Lucy flushed and looked away quickly.

The bus rattled to a stop and the doors slid open. The guy perked up expectantly, and Lucy couldn’t help but watch from the corner of her eye to see who he was waiting for. It didn’t look like he was about to get on at all. Was it his girlfriend? She felt a bit disappointed at that idea- after all, he was cute, even though she didn’t know him. Not that she wanted to date him, or anything. She hadn’t even talked to the guy. He could be a serial killer or something, for all she knew. Maybe he was actually waiting for his next victim.

After a few tense seconds (for her, anyway) out stepped...a cat. A mistake? Lucy tried to discreetly crane her neck to get a better look, but, no, definitely a cat. A blue cat. Once its front paws hit the ground, it tilted back onto its hind legs, looking completely at ease with a green purse strapped to its back.

Lucy rubbed her eyes. _Sleep deprivation is a hell of a drug_. She blinked hard. But alas, the cat remained.

To make things even crazier, the guy called out to the cat when it came near. “Happy! No dice?”

Happy? Was this guy just shouting out his emotions? Or was that the cat’s name? (A bit of an odd name, if you asked her.) And was he seriously expecting an answer from the cat?

Apparently, yes. Yes he was. Because without missing a beat, the cat answered in a squeaky voice, “Natsu! This guy says he’s Salamander!”

Lucy sat down.

Hard.

She put her face in her hands as the pink-haired guy and his blue cat proceeded to have a conversation.

 _This is it,_ Lucy thought weakly _, I’ve officially lost it. I’m going to be one of those homeless people who stagger around shouting at invisible fairies. Dear lord. I’m so sorry, mother, that you have to see me become like this._

A gravelly voice above her interrupted her internal monologue. “Ms...Heartfilia, was it?”

Lucy looked up. “Bora,” she said in surprise. “I thought you worked, like, ten blocks away from here?”

Bora nodded in acknowledgement. “I do. But this, ah, kitten convinced me to come down here to visit his friend. Told me that it was important. And I mean, when the rabbit hole calls, you can’t exactly say no.”

“By ‘rabbit hole’ you mean ‘blue talking cat’, right? Because I thought that was a hallucination unique to me,” Lucy asked, a bit dryly.

Bora laughed, showing all his teeth. He was old, but his obvious fake tan aged him even more. Add in the amount of gel he used on his dark hair, and the plastic rings that cluttered his fingers, and he seemed the definition of sleazy. Hence why Lucy didn’t like him much, no matter what he offered in terms of money or rewards.

“By the way, Ms. Heartfilia,” Bora said, interrupting her thoughts yet again. (Why did he keep doing that? Didn’t he know when to let brooding teenagers lie?) “Have you given any thought to what I offered you earlier?”

Lucy bit her lip. “Kind...of?”

He wiggled his fingers in a way that was totally convincing and not creepy at all. “What do you say? You’d be great.”

“I was thinking of just heading back home, actually,” Lucy told him.

Bora put on a very good devastated expression. “You’d give up this soon?”

“Hey, Salamander,” the pink guy shouted, waving impatiently. “I still need to talk to you!”

“Just a moment!” Bora called back. (Lucy didn’t get why they had to shout, since there was only a few yards between them. Seriously.)

Bora looked at her expectantly, and Lucy avoided his gaze. “No offense, but I don’t think that what you’re offering is the sort of profession I really want to get into.”

“You’d be perfect,” Bora reassured her, as Lucy’s unease grew. “Your body has a wonderful build. There’s nothing shameful about it.”

“I don’t really-” Lucy protested, trying to scoot to the side on the bench so she could get to the bus, but he grabbed her chin, squishing her cheeks up and pushing her mouth shut.

As his fingers clenched, she watched the bus doors swish shut and closed her eyes as a rush of exhaust blew over her. When she opened them, the bus was gone, and she was stranded with the pink stranger, the blue cat, and Bora.

With a thudding heart, she thought for the first time, _I could die here_.

Bora was talking. Babbling about nothing, really, but a ring on his finger caught her eye. Tilted in such a way that the heart imprinted in the gem fell directly in line with her gaze, it seemed to catch the light in a way the others didn’t. Lucy blinked, and it seemed to stay, hovering behind her eyelids. It was so pretty. Couldn’t be plastic, could it? It had to be something else. Like diamonds. Or starlight.

Was Bora still talking? Lucy tried to listen, but her ears weren’t working right. All she heard was a faint buzz. She tried to shake her head to clear it, but her neck had locked in place. She wanted to panic, but couldn’t seem to summon the energy. Maybe it would be alright to just fall asleep.

Lucy felt her head canting forward just as Bora’s hand was ripped away, the ring disappearing from her sight. She felt as though she had just surfaced from deep water, and looked around wildly, jumping to her feet.

It was the pink guy, she realized. He’d punched Bora in the face, and was now standing over him, frowning hard.

“What’s the big deal?” Bora asked him, a weak smirk quivering on his chin.

“You’re pretty creepy,” the blue cat told him, standing a few feet behind the pink guy.

“That was sleep magic!” Lucy gasped at him, curling her fists. “That’s _illegal_!”

Bora moved to grab something from his pocket, but the pink guy- okay, she really needed to learn his name- did a pretty impressive uppercut, making Bora stagger back a few steps.

“I can’t believe a creep like you was impersonating me!” he shouted. “Jeez, what an insult!”

Bora yelped and clutched his face suddenly. When he shifted his hand, Lucy saw the red, blistered imprint of a fist grazing his cheek, like a burn. Blood dripped from under his chin, staining the collar of his polyester shirt.

“Did you just-?” Lucy started, but the cat hopped onto her shoulder, and wrapped its tail over her mouth.

“Just enjoy the show,” the cat told her. Then it started kneading her shoulders.

 _Show?_ Lucy’s mind raced. _Is he going to beat that guy up even more? Oh my god. What if the police come? Can I get arrested as a witness?_

Lucy decided, and maybe it was a decision made of exhaustion and poor judgement, but Lucy decided that she’d had enough of being a witness. If her independence was truly what she’d sought when she ran away, then she was going to be independent, dammit!

“Shove it,” she told the cat, spitting its tail out of her mouth and dropping it to the ground. Before it hit, two fluffy white wings sprouted from its back and lowered its feet gently to the cement, where it stared at her balefully.

Lucy stalked over to where Bora and Mr. Pinkie were trading punches, Pinkie Pie landing the majority, though Bora was holding his own pretty well.

“It’s none of your business,” Bora was saying between hits.

“It’s totally my business!” Sir Salmon shouted, throwing a kick into Bora’s gut. “ _You_ were pretending to be _me_! And don’t just go around kidnapping people and expect nobody to care!”

“I don’t really like the term ‘kidnapping’,” Bora explained. “After all, Ms. Heartfilia assured me that she was an adult-”

“Boys,” Lucy ground out between gritted teeth.

They both froze.

Lucy placed a heavy hand on Bora’s shoulder. “This has been a weird night.”

“I-”

“Don’t talk.”

“A-alright.”

Conjunctivitis stepped in. “You know that he-”

“Sleep magic. Yeah,” Lucy said. “Okay. Listen. Bora: Leave. Go away. Bye bye.”

Bora promptly turned around and sprinted away, leaving a trail of fake tan behind him. He was probably just glad for an excuse to get away from the Pink Panther’s abuse, but Lucy liked to think that it was because of her fear-inspiring demeanor.

“As for Jesse Pinkman here-” she turned to the other guy, “I appreciate it, but you should really work on expressing your emotions without violence. And what’s up with your cat?”

“My hair isn’t pink,” he told her. “And Happy’s my friend.”

“You’re scary,” Happy told her.

Lucy stuck out her tongue. “It talks.”

“He,” the guy corrected her. “Why were you talking to him, anyway?” He seemed a bit miffed that Lucy had the gall to criticize his hotheadedness.

“Bora had offered me a job earlier, when I walked past his place,” Lucy said. “I said no, but he was apparently rather determined.”

“Doesn’t he run a strip club?” the guy asked.

“Yeah, why?”

The guy looked genuinely confused. “Why would he offer you a job there?”

“What do you mean?” Lucy asked.

“You don’t have any sex appeal,” Happy told her.

Lucy threw her hands up and turned around. She was _done with this_. Done with talking cats and pink-haired idiots and magic. _Completely finished_. Adjusting the strap on her bag, she decided just to _walk_ home.

“Where are you going?” she heard him shout once he’d realized she was leaving.

“Home,” she yelled back. Okay, so her voice may have quavered a little.

Lucy heard hushed conversation between the two of them, and then the sound of running feet. The guy dropped into stride beside her, a stupid cheesy grin on his face. Happy floated in front of her, though according to all known laws of aerodynamics he shouldn’t be able to _hover_ because _only hummingbirds could do that_ , but Lucy had stopped caring about that sort of thing a while ago.

“Fake-Salamander said that you’d be ‘giving up’ if you went home,” Happy told her.

“You were _listening_?” Lucy felt herself flush. “That’s really creepy.”

“You were talking to him,” the guy pointed out. “That’s pretty creepy.”

“ _He_ talked to _me_ ,” Lucy retorted, walking a bit faster, but the guy just matched pace.

“Suspicious,” the guy told Happy. Happy nodded in agreement.

“Look, guys, I’m just going to go, alright?” Lucy stopped walking, making them stop, too. “Thanks for your concern, but...I’m okay now.”

“You could get into trouble again,” the guy told her. “I don’t think you’re very strong. Probably get killed pretty easily.”

Lucy sputtered. “I’m not- I’m strong! I mean, I can fight, probably. Besides, why are you trying to be such a big hero? I’m none of your responsibility!”

The guy gaped at her. “Fine! Just leave, then!”

Lucy pushed them aside and made her way forward.

“She’s weird,” she heard Happy tell him, almost conspiratorially.

“I heard that,” Lucy muttered, stopping and turning back around, though she didn’t move closer. Happy fell out of the air in shock.

The guy seemed to be considering something. Lucy waited, curious. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Hey, before you go...c’mere..”

He beckoned her closer, which she obeyed, shuffling toward him until there was only two feet or so of space between them. “What…?” Lucy started to ask, before trailing off as she saw.

Hidden within the dark folds of his coat, he had his hand palm up, his fingers curled in slightly, like the edges of burnt paper. And there, flickering up between his knuckles, was a fire, small and golden yellow, smelling like burning charcoal.

“You’re a wizard,” Lucy whispered before she could stop herself.

He tilted his head. “Aren’t you?”

Silently, she nodded.

He closed his palm and the fire went out. “I knew it!”

He high-fived the cat. Lucy pinched her nose. “You can’t seriously- how did you know?”

The guy placed his hand on his chin. “I’d have to say...when you told us you knew what sleep magic was. Then I figured it out. Before that, I suspected. I’ve got pretty great intuition.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she told him dryly. Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, “My name’s Lucy, by the way. Lucy Heartfilia.”

“Natsu Dragneel,” he said proudly. “And you know Happy.”

“Aye!” the little cat saluted her.

“So, Natsu,” Lucy said, “If I can’t go home, and I can’t go with Bora, where should I go?”

“Where else?” Natsu asked her. “Fairy Tail.”


	2. oh, oh, oh, it's magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry it's taken so long to get the new chapter up....it's hard to find time to write OTL. hopefully i'll get the next one written sooner!  
> i also intended to go deeper into the economic side of things this chapter, but ended up not being able to. maybe i'll just leave the complicated political analyses for the later chapters. (kidding. kind of.)

“Fairy Tail,” he said.

Unfortunately, that string of words meant nothing to her.

“I don’t know that that means,” Lucy said, frowning. The tension flew out of the air, and the cold hit her cheeks again like a slap.

Natsu looked at Happy helplessly. “You know...it’s one of the unions.”

“Unions?” Lucy repeated. All she knew about unions were electricians and teachers. Something about dues. That was all they’d covered in her school.

“Wizard unions,” Natsu corrected, as if that was supposed to help. When he saw her utterly confused expression, he added more. “Well, anyway, Fairy Tail is the one I belong to. It helps you find jobs and gives you a place to stay. Course, the rooms are pretty small and the heating system is terrible, but beside that...it’s better than living on the streets, right?”

Lucy chewed her lip. On one hand, she didn’t know the guy, and it was possible he was even sleazier than Bora, trying to lead her into a trap or something. And she didn’t know anything about these unions at all. So she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Do I get to negotiate my contract?”

It seems like an odd thing to say, but she’d thought it out.

First of all, if Natsu was making all this up, he wouldn’t be able to answer it on his feet. If he was really part of the union, then he’d be able to tell her at least something right away. It was obscure enough that he couldn’t have thought it out beforehand as part of his scam. And if he was trying to maintain his character, it wouldn’t fit for him to agree with her immediately, no matter what. So it was sort of a test.

It was also because she was honestly curious. Her father spent so much time talking about business stuff, it wasn’t like she tuned him out every time. She knew that, rightfully, she should be able to look over her contract. And if there wasn’t a contract involved at all, then she was going to be pretty wary about it.

_Hey._ Who said blondes couldn’t be smart?

Natsu’s answer was something that Lucy wasn’t expecting at all.

“What’s a contract?”

Lucy’s jaw dropped. “You seriously don’t know that?”

He looked at her blankly, and Lucy decided that, no, she wasn’t really all that surprised.

“It’s a legal document!” she waved her arms at him, but he still didn’t get it. “You sign it!”

“Oh!” Natsu seemed to understand. “You mean like-”

As he started to explain, Happy looked at her and grimaced. “He doesn’t get it.”

Lucy’s patience was dwindling. At least she knew now that this guy was for real- there was no way that anyone could willingly pretend to be that stupid.

“Alright,” Lucy said, crossing her arms and interrupting Natsu mid-sentence. “I’m getting cold. I’ll go with you.”

“You make it sound like you’re doing us a favor or something,” Natsu grumbled.

Lucy pulled her scarf over her nose. “Shut up.”

She started to turn around to go back to the bus stop, but Natsu and Happy looked at her strangely. “What?”

“Where are you going?” Natsu asked.

“Bus...stop?”

“Why?”

“To ride a bus…? To get to...wherever this place is?”

Natsu visibly gagged. “Nope. I don’t ride the bus.”

“You aren’t suggesting,” Lucy deadpanned, “That we walk?”

“Of course I am,” he told her.

And so walk they did.

She couldn’t recall exactly how many blocks they walked, but it was enough that her feet began plotting a rebellion to secede from her body. Even so, she was taken aback by how different the city looked as they drew closer and closer. True, it was a shabby area of town. But it had the unmistakable mark of magic.

The shops, for instance, had wizard supply stores sprinkled between bars and greasy pizzerias. The cement sidewalks, littered with chewing gum and cigarette butts, also had scorch marks and water stains on them that could only have gotten there through magic. They passed several other union offices- some surrounded by chain link fences and others that seemed to sprawl through abandoned buildings.

On the way there, Lucy pressed Natsu for information. “So...what exactly does the union do?”

Natsu shrugged. “Like I said, provides jobs, mostly. If you take them, it helps the union, because they have to get a certain number of people to complete jobs in a year. It depends on the number of their members, too. You pay dues to them once a month, and you get housing and stuff in return. Pretty nice, if you ask me.”

“Why don’t people work independently?” Lucy asked. “Why are there so many unions?”

Natsu looked at her. “Don’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“It’s illegal for mages to take jobs that aren’t approved by the state. The easiest way to find state-approved jobs is through a union,” Natsu raised his eyebrows. “I can’t believe you didn’t know that. Are you sure you’re a mage?”

Lucy puffed out her cheeks. “I went to a private school, ok? They never talked about that sort of thing. But, wait- isn’t that illegal? Like, not allowing people to take certain jobs?”

“Technically you _could_ ,” Natsu said, “But since the line of thinking is that certain jobs are easier than mages than for regular people, you can get your pay cut as much as they think is suitable. So it’s easier just to avoid.”

“That’s…” Lucy gaped at him. “That’s so unfair!”

Natsu shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Lucy wanted to say something about that, but decided against it. “But couldn’t someone live independently and only apply for state-approved jobs anyway?”

“Oh, sure, lots of people do that,” Natsu agreed. “But they have to get special licenses so they don’t attack people or something. And a lot of insurance companies won’t cover them. It’s way easier to join a guild.”

“Why would they think mages would attack people?” Lucy crossed her arms. “That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s the same as owning a gun,” Natsu pointed out. “I mean, if I wanted to I could probably burn down a building in my sleep.”

Lucy wanted to ask _‘really?’_ but she figured he would decide to demonstrate that or something, so she instead asked, “And why won’t insurance cover them?”

“Liability issues,” Natsu told her, seeming bored with the conversation. “If I’m taking jobs to, I don’t know, act as a human wrecking ball and demolish an old building, there’s a high possibility that I’m gonna get hurt, you know? And insurance companies don’t want to deal with that.”

“Is that a real sort of job?” Lucy had hoped there would be normal jobs, too. Like delivering pizza. Or even cleaning toilets.

“Yep,” Natsu said, and didn’t elaborate.

After that, they fell into a silence. Happy occasionally interrupted by trying to pull Lucy’s hair, but she would smack him away every time. (It wasn’t like he got hurt or anything, seeing as he would just fly away in an angry circle.)

Lucy didn’t mind the quiet, since it gave her time to admire the town around her. It wasn’t very welcoming, but for some reason...she felt like she belonged. It was a strange feeling.

The only wizard she’d known before running away had been her mother. She would take out her shining collection of gold and silver keys and show them off to guests at parties, sometimes performing small tricks for them. When they were alone, she’d let Lucy run her fingers down their teeth, always warm no matter how cold it was outside. As she got older, her mother taught her how to use them. When her mother was dying, she took Lucy into her bedroom before she was admitted to the hospital for the last time. She was afraid that when she died, something could happen to Lucy. So she pulled out the keys and explained to  Lucy that she would leave them to her, in case something happened. She even summoned Aquarius and transferred her contract to Lucy- but that sapped too much of her energy, so they couldn’t do any of the others.

After that, her mother embraced her, and told her gently, “Remember this, Lucy. They’re not your weapons. Your spirits will protect you, but you need to protect them, too.”

“Of course,” Lucy had promised her. Her mother smiled, her eyes crinkling at the edges, where wrinkles had left long furrows in her skin. Besides that, her mother looked a lot like Lucy, though Lucy always found her to be much more beautiful. She shone from the inside out with kindness, and no matter how much Lucy tried to emulate her, Layla Heartfilia had no match.

Lucy always thought that her father never deserved someone like her.

“Whatcha thinking ‘bout, Lucy?” Happy asked, tugging her hair _again_ , interrupting her thoughts.

She punched him. “Go _away_ , you damn cat.” Happy spun through the air, tail over ears, before gently crashing into Natsu’s back.

“Hey!” Natsu shouted at her, turning around and waving a fist in her general direction.

“He started it!” Lucy yelled, at the limits of her patience.

“That’s really immature, Lucy,” Happy told her seriously, from his safe spot behind Natsu’s shoulder.

Lucy fumed silently, and only snapped out of it when Natsu said, “Oh, we’re here.” He pointed over her shoulder.

“Really?” Lucy said, stopping and turning to look at where he’d pointed.

It was a trash heap.

“That’s a trash heap,” she told him.

“Is it?” He blinked, then spun around. “Oh! Now we’re here.” He pointed in the opposite direction, across the street to an old-looking apartment building that said _Fairy Tail_ in flickering pink neon letters on the front.

She crossed the street with trepidation, not caring if he followed. Lucy stared up at the building, brick crumbling and some windows boarded up. High above, the roof had a gargoyle on each corner with maws gaping, water stains running down their faces, egg-and-dart moulding lining the space under. It looked like any other older building in the city.

Except for the air of magic that clung to this building unlike any other. The circle of runes etched into the concrete in front of the stairs leading up to the set of oaken doors. The knockers set there were bronze, and polished until they shone in the faint lamplight from the street. And of course, the strange marks on the exterior- a set of claw scratches ran down the eastern wall, half hidden under ivy, and scorch marks rippled around several windows. In some places where the brick was crumbling badly, the building was held together with plates of steel without bolts, or a sheet of ice, a net of vines. And as the wind blew over Lucy, still staring at the building, it seemed warm, like the structure was heaving a great sigh.

Natsu came up behind her. “I did that one,” he said, pointing at the scorching. He grinned widely, seeming very proud of himself. “Whaddya think?”

“It’s...something else,” Lucy mumbled, trying to remember to blink.

“Well, don’t just stand there,” he said, shoving the small of her back. “Come on!”

He ran up the stairs, Happy gleefully flapping after him. Lucy sighed and followed.

_There’s no going back now._

Inside the set of wood doors wasn’t a foyer, as she had expected. Rather, it led directly to a small office, lined with metal filing cabinets, though there seemed to be more papers outside the cabinets than actually in them.

Sitting at the desk, holding an old-fashioned pen and frowning at a paper in his hand, was a tiny old man. It looked like all the hair on the crown of his head had leaped off and landed on his upper lip, giving him an impressive mustache and a spray of white hair behind his ears.

He didn’t look up when they came in. “Natsu,” he said, his voice rumbling deep inside his chest. “You’re getting fined for property damage. Again.”

“What?” Natsu asked, his jaw hitting the floor. “C’mon, Gramps. I didn’t even _do_ anything, just melted the bumper of the truck off. That doesn’t count.”

“That counts,” the old man informed him gravely.

“Ah.” Natsu scratched his head. “Wait! Guess what! I’ve got something that will make you completely forget about all this!”

“I have enough alcohol, Natsu,” he said, finally looking up. His grumpy expression cleared when he saw Lucy. “Oh. Oh! A new member?”

It took Lucy a moment to realize that she was supposed to speak. “Uh, yeah. I guess.”

“Wonderful!” The guy pointed at the chair in front of his desk and it flew back a few feet. “Take a seat. Natsu, you can leave.”

As annoying as the guy was, Lucy was a bit sad to see him go. She didn’t know anyone else here. She didn’t want to be alone again.

_Lucy,_ she told herself firmly. _You knew what you were getting into when you ran away. Suck it up._

She sat down, folding her hands in her lap uncertainly. “Ah, so…”

“My name is Makarov,” the old man informed her. “I’m the master of the union, though most here call it a guild, since it has less of a cold feeling to it.”

Lucy nodded wordlessly.

Makarov smiled a bit. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you here. I don’t make it a habit to pry into the business of my guild members, but if you need something, well...consider us family. Alright?”

“Okay,” Lucy said, her voice coming out softer than she’d intended. She hadn’t thought that hearing those sort of words would hit her so hard, but she felt a lump begin to rise in her throat.

She bit her tongue. _Don’t do that._

The master cleared his throat. “Anyway, we’ve just got to fill out some papers that I’ll turn into the state as soon as I can. Then you’ll have your permit so you can take jobs, but you can still stay here, even without it. While you’re filling those out, I’m going to make some coffee. Want any?”

“Sure,” Lucy replied absently, flipping through the papers. She was serious earlier when she’d asked about the contract business. But from what she could tell, it didn’t really seem to be like that- more of an application or a census report. They were mostly documents asking her to state her name, things like that. It never asked for things like her social security number or home address, though, which was good.

For about twenty minutes, they sat in the small office as Lucy filled out her forms. Makarov shuffled papers and the coffee maker burbled in the background. Occasionally the lights would flicker a bit, but Makarov’s non-reaction indicated that this was a normal occurrence. Above, Lucy could hear footsteps and people talking, the faint sound of music coming from afar. In all, it seemed like something she could get used to.

After about five minutes, the coffee finished, and Makarov poured it into styrofoam cups. Lucy accepted hers gingerly, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d thought it could be, tasting only slightly burnt. She finished it off as she signed the last form with a flourish, side-eyeing her signature a bit. Personally, Lucy had always wanted one of those impressive celebrity-type signatures, all loopy and unreadable, yet distinctive. Ah, well. She was about as far from the celeb life as she could be right now.

_Not a bad thing,_ she scolded herself. _This is the best opportunity you’ve_ ever _had_. _You did this for a_ reason.

“Done?” the master asked. He had coffee stains in his mustache. Lucy wondered if it would be rude to point it out.

“You-” Yes, it would be rude. “Yeah.”

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as he took the papers from her hands. He flipped through them briefly, scanning over it to make sure she’d filled everything in. “Celestial Spirit Mage, huh? Those are pretty rare nowadays.”

“I’d guess,” Lucy said. “The only other one I’ve met was my mother.”

Makarov grunted. “Hm." She thought that he was going to say something else, but the master stayed silent.

Lucy fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat as he finished looking over the pages. Finally, he announced, "Alright, then. Hold on for a moment, I'll get you a key for your room."

He fished around in a drawer for a few seconds, before popping out a small key on a keychain. "That should have your apartment number on it. When your permit comes in, I'll let you know. Until then, you can't take any jobs of course, but if food or something becomes an issue I'm sure plenty of people here would be willing to help you out."

"Thank you," Lucy said, taking the keychain from his hand. Turning it over between her fingers, she saw that whoever had used the key before her had attached a homemade charm to it- a little black pompom ball, with a single googly eye clinging to its surface. It was sort of cute, in a way.

She pocketed it. "I guess I'll get going, now. Thanks for everything." Lucy reached over the desk to shake his hand. For such a small man, his handshake was warm and firm.

“It’s my pleasure,” he told her, letting go of her hand too soon for her taste.

Lucy knelt and picked up her bag, then exited through the back door with a final wave. She came out to a stairwell, lit by a bare lightbulb. Lucy trudged up, wincing with each step. Her feet were pretty sore after walking a day- she'd have to get some better shoes. Though she didn't have that much money, so food would have to be a priority…

Up a flight, and there was an entrance to some kind of hall. Lucy peeked in, jumping back a little when she realized that there were people there, seated at a bar of sorts. The rest of the room looked like a cafeteria, not in a good way. It had those industrial lights that offices and schools used, as well as those fake wooden tables with metal legs and plastic chairs. She didn't get a chance to look around much, though, because someone sitting at the bar noticed her lurking in the doorway. They started to say something, but Lucy tripped away nervously, backing up the stairs towards the apartments.

It took her a few moments to locate her door. It took her even longer to open it, after a heated struggle with the lock after the key got stuck, resulting in several muffled curses and a few violent shakes of the door frame. Honestly, she was a _celestial spirit mage_. Wasn't she supposed to be good with keys or something?

Eventually, Lucy managed to get into her apartment, though it seemed less like an apartment and more like a closet. There was a twin bed in the corner (no sheets or blankets, predictably, though there was a pillow in a sad looking case), with a dresser at the foot. There were a few square feet of room, covered by a tattered rug, before a small kitchen unit, crushed into the far corner. A door off to the side indicated a bathroom. Upon further inspection into the bath, Lucy found a shower stall with peeling tiles, a cracked sink, and a tiny little toilet with one of those fuzzy seat covers. Ew. When she found a trashcan, that was the first thing she threw out.

Digging through the set of drawers, Lucy pumped her fist a little when she realized that the room’s previous owner had left behind a blanket and a few clothing garments- a pair of torn black leggings, muddy work boots, and a shirt with a stain on it. Whatever. Lucy would still take them- they didn’t seem too filthy, and besides, she was cold. She set the clothes in the sink to soak for the night, so that hopefully she could wear them soon without getting a viral infection.

While peering under the bed for anything else the previous owner may have left behind, she actually found the missing googly eye for the pompom keychain. With the help of a bit of toothpaste left behind in the bathroom, she reattached it, so the charm looked a bit less sad.

Lucy set the key on the table next to the bed, and laid her toothbrush and scissors next to it. She took off her shoes and placed them by the bed, nudging the heels with her toes to make them sit straight. She padded over to the window, on the far wall from the door, placing her hands on the sill. It was set rather low on the wall, so she knelt in front of it, laying her chin on her hands. The window came level with the roof next to her. It was one of those buildings with a sloping roof, but a flat expanse at the lip of it. If Lucy wanted to, she could feasibly jump from her window onto the neighboring roof, but it was a gap of at least three feet- not something she particularly wanted to attempt.

She closed her eyes, the exhaustion that had been building all day finally catching up to her. It had to be past midnight by now, ages since when she’d woken up that morning. This wasn’t where she’d seen herself going to sleep tonight, when she’d hopped out out her bed in a hurry, leaving it unmade. What was it that she used to tell her mother? That it was no use making her bed if she was just going to sleep in it again?

_Well_ , Lucy thought, _maybe that just means that I’ll go back home sometime. It’s not like I’m going to stay here forever. And besides, if I want my keys, I’ll have to go back eventually._

Even so, she couldn’t figure out if she actually wanted to go back or not. She’d been angry that morning, true and hadn’t really been thinking when she ran away- but she didn’t regret it now. No matter how hungry or cold she was. Yet…

Lucy felt caught in between spaces. Like she was swimming in the ocean, but the tides weren’t working. Instead of being pulled out to sea, or being pushed to shore, she just felt like she was floating aimlessly. She didn’t know where she belonged; she didn’t know where she wanted to go. She was simply existing.

But there was no more time for second thoughts. It was dark, and Lucy’s legs were starting to cramp. So she stood up, brushed off her knees, and fell onto the bed, feeling the bare mattress prickle her cheeks. With a halfhearted sigh, she drew the blanket up around her shoulders, tucking her legs to her stomach, rubbing her feet together in an attempt to get them warm.

_Goodnight, Lucy_ , she told herself glumly. _Don’t let the bedbugs bite._

There probably were bedbugs in the bed, now that she thought about it.

And with that comforting thought, Lucy drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: things that go 'thump!' in the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time: Politics! Economics! Bureaucracy! Magic! One of these things is not like the other!


End file.
